Audacy, Inc. has emerged from Chapter 11, its prepackaged reorganization having been confirmed on February 20, 2024 and made effective on September 30, 2024, reducing roughly $1.9 billion of funded debt to approximately $350 million through a pre-arranged debt-for-equity restructuring.

The Philadelphia-based operator of more than 225 radio stations across 45-plus U.S. markets, alongside a podcasting platform generating approximately 150 million monthly downloads, filed its voluntary Chapter 11 petitionDkt. 1 in the Southern District of Texas on January 7, 2024, together with a pre-solicited Joint Prepackaged Plan of ReorganizationDkt. 24. The filing followed sustained pressure on traditional radio advertising and pandemic-accelerated shifts in listening behavior, compounded by a $945.6 million 2023 impairment on broadcasting licenses and roughly $120.6 million in annual cash interest on a capital structure that had become unsustainable after the 2017 Reverse Morris Trust merger with CBS Radio — pressure that culminated in the November 2023 NYSE delisting and successive late-2023 interest-payment grace periods detailed in the First Day Declaration of Heath C. GrayDkt. 26.

At the petition date, Audacy's prepetition capital structure totaled roughly $1.85 billion across four secured facilities: first-lien term loans of about $632 million and a first-lien revolver of about $220 million, plus 6.750% second-lien notes due 2027 ($460 million) and 7.375% second-lien notes due 2029 ($540 million). To fund the expedited case, the Debtors drew on a $32 million senior secured superpriority debtor-in-possession facility with use of cash collateralDkt. 290, carrying priming liens, adequate protection for the prepetition secured parties, and budget-driven availability controls.

Less than seven weeks after filing, Judge Christopher M. Lopez signed the order approving the disclosure statement and confirming the prepackaged planDkt. 295 on February 20, 2024 — the same day the final DIP/cash-collateral order was entered. The ten-class plan carried out the pre-solicited debt-for-equity restructuring, delivering the targeted roughly 80% deleveraging.

The case is now in the post-effective-date phase. With the plan effective since September 30, 2024, the substantive restructuring is complete; remaining activity consists of estate administration, plan distributions, and any reserved plan-contingent matters rather than further restructuring work.